Barcelona Pavilion
A landmark of the free plan — and a resurrection, rebuilt from drawings decades after it was demolished.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Barcelona offline.
Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich designed it as Weimar Germany's calling card for the 1929 International Exposition: democratic, modern, pared to almost nothing. Torn down in 1930; what you walk through is the 1983–86 reconstruction, built on the rediscovered original footings.
What to look for
- The free-standing walls veneered in golden onyx and Tinos green marble — they primarily divide the space rather than bear the roof.
- Georg Kolbe's sculpture Alba (Dawn) standing in the smaller of the two travertine water basins.
- The chrome cruciform columns that actually carry the roof — Robin Evans saw them straining to hold the 'floating' roof plane down rather than bear its weight.
On Montjuïc; what you see is the 1986 reconstruction, not the 1929 original. Compact — figure 20–30 minutes.
Barcelona Pavilion is one of 39 sights worth the detour in Barcelona, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Barcelona pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Barcelona
- Sagrada FamíliaGaudí is buried beneath a church begun in 1882 and still unfinished — one that in 2025 became the world's tallest.
- Camp NouThe bowl that once crammed 120,000 people in to watch Barça — European football's biggest room.
- Park GüellGaudí's failed luxury subdivision — 2 of 60 planned homes ever built — that Barcelona inherited as a mosaic playground.
- Casa Milà (La Pedrera)Gaudí's last private house looks like a wind-carved sea cliff parked on a city corner.
- Casa BatllóGaudí reskinned a townhouse into a slain dragon, down to columns shaped like leg bones.
- Barcelona CathedralThirteen white geese live in the cloister — one for each year Saint Eulalia was alive before Rome killed her.